In-depth Boss Strategies for Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub

Now that the servers are stable, you're probably thinking of queuing for Zul'Aman or Zul'Gurub later on today. As you can imagine, slightly harder heroics is nothing to laugh about--especially if you choose to be brave and PUG them. Add in the fun with rare mount drops, epic BoE drops, and they can even seem like a nightmare.

We here at Wowhead have you covered, though! Every boss page on the database has a strategy up that's current as of last night. We're also posting them here for you in a nice miniguide so that you can use this post as a cheat sheet to how to do every new encounter in 4.1. So sit back and read on if you want to learn how to put those trolls in their place.

This version of Zul'Gurub is quite similar to the old version--the scenery hasn't changed much and some of the old bosses remain. Fortunately for you, there's a lot less trash and a lot more neutral Gurubashi trolls milling about. Two new mounts are available: Armored Razzashi Raptor and Swift Zulian Panther. There's even some mini-bosses, listed under Gurubashi Headhunter, that drop trade goods--even Maelstrom Crystal!

Before You Start: Quest Summaries

Don't forget to go into the dungeon with some objectives! In addition to the faction-specific quest chain featured on our 4.1 guide that culminates in Some Good Will Come rewarding a Panther Cub, there's a variety of quests offered as soon as you step foot in Zul'Gurub.

This fight involves a lot of concentration spent on movement since the area will be covered with a poison maze, made up of green lines, that keeps growing. For each second standing in that you will take immense damage, so you need to avoid it at all times. Pick up the Toxic Torment buff from Zanzil's Cauldron of Toxic Torment to gain initial advantage.

Phase 1: Humanoid Form

Venoxis will frequently use Whispers of Hethiss, channeling a green beam at a random player. This should be interrupted.

A Toxic Link will be also frequently used to link two random players to each other, however it seems to never affect the tank. Run away from each other to break the link, but stay away from party members as the broken link will erupt in a which deals AoE damage.

Phase 2: Serpent Form

This phase is initiated by Venoxis transforming into a serpent using the . He will no longer use his abilities from the first phase, but receive new ones as well as an increase of 100% in physical damage dealt.

Immediately drag him off the green Pool of Acrid Tears he summons before and after his Breaths. These will deal massive damage to you, so keeping your eye on the ground is crucial to survival.

Venoxis frequently uses Breath of Hethiss which will hit anyone in a wide and 10 yard long frontal cone. If you stand in these for longer than a second, you're dead. Tanks, you will need to move as well.

At the end of the serpent phase he will walk to his altar and channel , summoning three Bloodvenom Tendrils. These tendrils will target a random player and follow after them, dealing massive damage to anyone close. Here you should stack up in one corner at the beginning and run together, so you do not lead your tendril into someone else.

After Bloodvenom, Venoxis will suffer from Venom Withdrawal, stunning him and making him take 100% more damage for 10 seconds. Then he will transform into his humanoid form and start phase 1 again.

If you keep dying in the second phase, consider stopping melee DPS entirely and just concentrate on running through the maze until he does Bloodvenom.

Bloodlord Mandokir, after his unintended resurrection, too has returned as the second boss in Zul'Gurub. He and his faithful raptor Ohgan have leveled up and now proudly await you to gain more levels!

Strategy

The fight still resembles the original encounter in some ways. You will face-off against Mandokir and his raptor Ohgan, and you will have a number of 8 Chained Spirits at your disposal, each one granting you an one-time resurrection which also buffs Mandokir. Fortunately for Mandokir and his raptor and unfortunately for you, Ohgan has learned to kill these spirits.

Mandokir will often perform Bloodletting on a random player, draining 50% of the target's current health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. The healer will need to heal that player very quickly after the spell is over.

Mandokir starts the fight mounted on his raptor, but once he dismounts he will start using Devastating Slam. This will let spikes shoot up from the ground in a cone, inflicting massive damage to anyone standing there. If you see red ground, get out of it! Try not to waste your rezzes on this ability.

Decapitate is an instant-kill ability that you can't avoid, but fortunately Mandokir won't be doing it too often. If you still have Chained Spirits available, these will offer you a resurrection.

After dismounting, his raptor Ohgan will immediately run towards the Chained Spirits. You have two ways to deal with this: either slowing Ohgan by using all possible stuns and snares, or killing him, thus putting him down for several seconds. This won't last long—Mandokir will Reanimate Ohgan after a short time.

At 20%, Mandokir will enrage into an undispellable Frenzy, making his attack speed 100% faster. Use whatever cooldowns you have available.

Each time a player dies, Mandokir will Level Up, increasing his damage dealt by 20%. The buff stacks.

The Edge of Madness is a special event accessible only by players with high Archaeology. The player will need to click on numerous troll, fossil, night elf, and dwarven artifacts, discovering four that require closer examination. These artifacts will fly into the air and merge to summon one of four bosses: Hazza'rah, Renataki, Wushoolay, and Gri'lek. The bosses are stationary with a few twists.

Renataki, a troll rogue, periodically casts Ambush and , a version of Fan of Knives on steroids. Run out of his whirlwinding path until he is done attacking.

Hazza'rah, a troll shaman, summons adds via Nightmare. These adds target a player and stun them with Waking Nightmare. If the add reaches the targeted player, it will use Consume Soul and kill the player.

Wushoolay, a troll elemental shaman, casts several lightning abilities you must move away from Players close to must run away to avoid being killed. Also avoid the and .

Gri'lek, a troll berserker, is a typical melee mob that periodically targets a player. When this happens, he grows in size, deals more damage, and moves noticeably slower. He does an emote when targeting a player, so everyone has time to move. Avoid his tremor and dispel roots.

Strategy

Kilnara will mainly cast throughout phase 1. This spell is interruptable and should be interrupted.

Both and Tears of Blood will also be frequently cast. While you can interrupt the Tears of Blood static AoE channel (purple flecks floating towards the ground), you cannot interrupt Lash of Anguish.

Another visible ability that cannot be interrupted is Wave of Agony, where Kilnara will channel a huge purple wave wall. If you fail to get behind her, you will be knocked back far and suffer shadow damage.

She will also cast which cannot be avoided. Simply heal through it.

Pride of BethekkBefore the fight, you will notice four packs with four Pride of Bethekk each in Dark Slumber. It is your goal to kill these before you bring Kilnara to 50%. You have the option of pulling a full pack with your tank and Kilnara in his tow, which is fast; or having your DPS pull a panther one by one while your tank occupies Kilnara, which is slow. If you do not kill these before Kilnara reaches 50%, you will have to fight the ones left alive. To awake a panther, simply directly attack one or drop a Temple Rat nearby. Temple Rats can be looted inside of the Altar of Bethekk.

Phase 2: Panther Form

At 50% health Kilnara will receive a Primal Blessing, transforming into the Avatar of Bethekk. She will also start gaining Rage of the Ancients, stacking every 5 seconds, and the temple will Cave In, dealing damage to everyone. Any panthers you haven't killed by now will intervene in the fight.

Kilnara will also use Ravage, dealing damage to a single target and , dealing AoE damage.

At around 15%, she will briefly go into Camouflage to irritate your party, and then reappear.

Zanzil has returned as the second-to-last boss in Zul'Gurub, occupying the former space of Jin'do the Hexxer. To defeat him, you must utilize three different cauldrons which counteract his various abilities.

Strategy

This fight is very dynamic. Note the three cauldrons from which you will get specific buffs to counter Zanzil's attacks lying around the room.

Zanzil regularly casts on a random player which cannot be avoided. Simply heal though it. He also uses which should be interrupted.

He will also cast Zanzili Fire frequently, creating a bright line of arcane magic that deals severe damage to anyone standing in it.

One of the random special spells Zanzil will use against you is Zanzil's Graveyard Gas. The entire area will be floode with green gas, and you should immediately get Toxic Torment from the green cauldron to survive.

When Zanzil uses Zanzil's Resurrection Elixir to raise his Zanzili Zombies, have your tank pick up Burning Blood from the red cauldron and aggro the zombies. AoE them down and have the DPS pick up Burning Blood as well to speed things up. Remember that Burning Blood will also damage friendly players, so be sure to heal your party.

Jin'do the Godbreaker, returned from death, is the last boss of Zul'Gurub. He is eager to meet you, or in his own words: I'm attacking ya, yo!

Strategy

Phase 1: Reality

Throughout this phase, Jin'do will summon a Deadzone several times. Have the tank pull Jin'do immediately out of it, but be ready to go in yourself when he starts casting Shadows of Hakkar to take less magic damage. Otherwise, your party should stay outside since it reduces your casting speed and ultimately, damage done to Jin'do.

Deadzone is closely tied to Shadows of Hakkar. When you see him channeling Shadows of Hakkar, go into the Deadzone, but keep him out after he has finished his cast. Once his Shadows of Hakkar buff runs out, he will create a new Deadzone you need to drag him out of.

While your party members split up and position themselves near chains, your tank will need to pull a Gurubashi Spirit, and have him Body Slam at one of the chains. Once that chain's barrier is broken, the party member should move to another chain. Keep doing this for the rest of the chains, and then finish the spirits off. Then destroy each chain one by one.

Throughout the phase, Twisted Spirits will keep appearing and pose a nuisance to your party. They can be soloed one-on-one, but you will be overrun if you face too many. Have your ranged DPS pick them off from a distance or have the tank taunt to avoid healers getting aggro. If you keep dying to too many spirits, consider killing the Gurubashi Spirit once he destroys a barrier, and destroy that chain, AoEing down the adds in the process. Repeat this for each chain.

Black/purple spikes flying through the air are caused by Shadow Spike from whose impact you need to stay away. These deal huge damage especially if you stand in the purple void zones.

Zul'Aman, now a 5-player dungeon, still holds many challenges for players with difficult trash and the timed run. Players will be happy to find that the fun aspects of Zul'Aman remain--namely the Amani Hex Stick that spawned a variety of colorful NPCs, dancing trolls, and of course a new Amani Battle Bear. We'll cover tips and tricks on how to successfully complete a timed Zul'Aman run later, but for now, acquaint yourself first with the new mechanics and quests.

Before You Start: Quest Summaries

Make sure you go in knowing what quests to do. Here's a brief rundown:

Akil'zon, the first boss of the instance, calls upon eagles to attack your party. He has a few new tricks from his original version. To reach Akil'zon, players must defeat a gauntlet of shamans and eagles.

New to the encounter is the Amani Kidnapper, an eagle that will periodically seize a party member, casting Plucked. The party, including the seized player, should switch to kill the Amani Kidnapper and free the player.

Akil'zon once again casts on the tank and on random players, which stacks but can be removed. Spread out to avoid hitting the party with the AOE and use nature resistance to decrease the damage taken.

When is cast, the targeted player will be suspended in the air and shoot an electrical storm across the entire platform. The party should group up underneath the targeted player to avoid taking damage.

Nalorakk, the second boss in the instance, has abilities reminiscent of a feral druid and turns into a bear. Large and hard-hitting groups of trolls and warbears guard his altar.

In phase 1, the troll phase, Nalorakk casts Brutal Strike on the tank.

He also uses Surge on the player the farthest away from him. He will use this ability three times before transitioning. It helps to have a ranged dps and healer alternate the surges. You may want to consider using three different soakers depending on the personal defensive cooldowns of your party.

In phase 2, he turns into a bear. He casts on the tank and Deafening Roar on the party.

Jan'alai is a forest troll who guards two sets of dragonhawk eggs on his altar. The key to beating Jan'alai is avoiding the fire on the ground while controlling the number of eggs to hatch at once.

Jan'alai casts in the direction of a random player. This is easily avoidable, especially if you stay close to his hit box.

Periodically, Jan'alai will cast Fire Bomb. These orange bombs will spawn haphazardly from the center of the room and explode several seconds later, leaving large gaps where players can safely stand and continue to fight.

Jan'alai will Summon Amani'shi Hatcher, NPCs which will run to the sets of eggs at either side of the altar and begin to hatch them until they are killed. The hatched Amani Dragonhawk Hatchling, which cast Flame Buffet, should be AOEd down and dps should watch aggro. It is advisable to have several waves of Hatchlings instead of letting them all spawn at once at any time during the encounter.

Halazzi is the last of the four bosses needed to successfully completed the timed bear run. He drops hostile totems and calls upon the power of the lynx for aid.

In the troll phase, Halazzi drops Water Totem which buffs the boss with Refreshing Stream. This totem can be killed; however, you can also move the boss away from the green healing circle and continue to focus dps. If you stand in Refreshing Stream, you too will be granted a steady amount of health and mana, which can help dps and healing. He also casts Enrage.

At 66% and 33%, Halazzi will summon Spirit of the Lynx and heal to 100%. DPS should switch to the Spirit of the Lynx and group up to maximize dps, as the Spirit of the Lynx does not have traditional aggro and will attack random players. It will also cast Shred Armor and Lynx Flurry which can be especially rough on cloth dps. Depending on your group composition, DPS can switch to kill the Corrupted Lightning Totem before it does extreme amounts of damage--once the Spirit of the Lynx has died, the DPS will go back to Halazzi. Or if you have strong healing and have chosen to keep the Water Totems up, ignore the Spirit of the Lynx and stay on the boss. Eventually, the Spirit of the Lynx will despawn.

Hex Lord Malacrass, a witch doctor, is the second-to-last boss within Zul'Aman. He is flanked by two random adds, which can be CCed and ignored for the duration of the fight. Malacrass' trick is that he will mimic player abilities to gain temporary new power. As the fight continues, he will slowly gain strength while reducing that of the party.

He will alternate between hurling Spirit Bolts at the party, a fairly strong AOE, and channeling Siphon Soul. As the fight drags on, you will get high stacks of Drain Power, making Malacrassharder to kill.

Use common sense when dealing with all of the temporary player abilities. Interrupt heals, run away from cleaves, and remove debuffs.

Daakara is the warlord of the Amani tribe and successor to Zul'jin. This fight is very similar to the lvl 70 Zul'jin encounter, in that it draws upon the power of various animal avatars for separate phases. However, there are only three phases in 4.1, instead of five.

In the first phase, Daakara casts Whirlwind and , for which the player must be healed in order to be removed. Melee dps that eat a whirlwind while afflicted with Grievous Throw may find themselves dead quickly. At 80% and 40%, Daakara transforms into two of the four remaining avatars at random.

In Shape of the Eagle, Daakara creates an Energy Storm and casts Summon Cyclone that players must dodge. Players that run into cyclones will be hit by . Be sure to kill the Lightning Totem to prevent additional damage from going out. As part of Energy Storm all spells cast will deal damage to the caster--healers must be smart about deciding when to heal, as they will take additional damage when doing so.

Comments

Comment by whquaint

Actually he always picks bear or lynx the first time and eagle or dragonhawk the second time. So first is random only between bear and lynx. Second is random only between eagle and dragonhawk.

Comment by Azrile

on 2011-05-20T04:12:51-05:00

I know this is contrary to everyone´s opinion, but I am going to put it out there.

Tanking phase 2 of the last boss of ZG is very easy.. and takes burden off bad dps. Simply mark your healer, and then run around in big circles kiting all the little adds. I make sure every few seconds to stop by the healer and get a good aoe near him but otherwise i just run in big circles aoeing whenever they are off cd.. The adds never touch you if you keep moving, and the zerker barely does either. It allows your dps to focus on the slams and chains.

Especially in pugs, if you ask dps to kill them, either they are swarming the healer, or the dps are trying to kill them and not getting slammed on shields.

I have done this 4 times now with full pugs without a single wipe, and it makes it so much easier. Just never stop running and hit your aoes on every cd. I tell dps to ignore spirits and only kill zerker after second bubble is popped

Comment by Azrile

on 2011-05-20T04:43:44-05:00

"Daakara transforms into two of the four remaining avatars at random"

Actually he always picks bear or lynx the first time and eagle or dragonhawk the second time. So first is random only between bear and lynx. Second is random only between eagle and dragonhawk.

based on my experience of about 10 runs where i payed attention.. it seems lynx is always with dragon, and bear is with eagle. And you are correct, it is always bear or lynx first.

Comment by Worldofbug

on 2011-05-26T05:44:53-05:00

The last boss in Zul'gurub is giving me a headache , I'm a tank and had about 18 parties fall apart due to the fact that the lass boss can't be killed without 2 ranged dps dealing with spirits. Of course I had the couple odd parties where 1 ranged did just fine , but most of the time we go through the whole instance to then just leave before last boss because we can't do it, so disappointing.

So can the GM do something e.g when people queue for this dungeon make sure that only 1 mele is allowed and there's always 2 ranged in party ?. Get back to me on this one people. Kthxbye

Comment by Adamsm

on 2011-05-26T08:16:39-05:00

The last boss in Zul'gurub is giving me a headache , I'm a tank and had about 18 parties fall apart due to the fact that the lass boss can't be killed without 2 ranged dps dealing with spirits. Of course I had the couple odd parties where 1 ranged did just fine , but most of the time we go through the whole instance to then just leave before last boss because we can't do it, so disappointing.

So can the GM do something e.g when people queue for this dungeon make sure that only 1 mele is allowed and there's always 2 ranged in party ?. Get back to me on this one people. Kthxbye

Since this isn't Blizzard probably not.

And I've completed Jindo with a full melee group before easily; just had all of us using AoE's to keep the spirits from overwhelming the party while dropping the chains.

Comment by Brum

on 2011-06-05T13:27:53-05:00

Missing death knight abilities for Malacrass in boss strategy. The 3 abils are listed in Malacrass's comments

Comment by smilingbob

on 2011-07-10T21:19:14-05:00

In Shape of the Lynx, Daakara spawns two adds that can quickly destroy a player if they are not killed quickly, between Lynx Rush and Claw Rage. The tank should taunt during Claw Rage to split the damage taken.

...Daakara does those two moves, not the adds. The 2 Amani Lynx he spawns only do Feral Swipe

...meaning the adds are rather harmless and the boss should be burned. Of course if you can cc the adds, great, do it. But burn the boss.

Comment by cisforcookie

on 2011-07-25T20:34:15-05:00

lord malacrass infos outdated. he has only 2 out of 4 adds with him (bloodelf-priest, undead wraith, snake and imp) and siphon soul dk is missing as well as some cata skills, which he is using now (e. g. heroic leap, smokebomb, leap of faith etc)m2c

Comment by Br0tha

on 2011-07-25T23:11:35-05:00

I'm quite shocked about some of the comments we find here lol.

First about "At 66% and 33%, Halazzi will summon Spirit of the Lynx and heal to 100%. DPS should switch to the Spirit of the Lynx"

Just ignore the Spirit if the Lynx, healer can basically just easily heal through it. It's one of the easiest boss of the instance, it's just long since he switch form and heal back up etc.

Secondly, about Jin'do the Godbreaker.... It's such an easy fight too. I've been tank and Ranged DPS for this fight often. The ONLY thing is you have to explain some little thing to your group or assign people to do something before the fight, afterwhile, it's a piece of cake.

Tell them to make sure to get into the deadzone. Hell, even if they stay there 100% of the time, phase one is a piece of cake, as long as you don't miss the deadzone.

Phase 2, assign ONE ranged dps to be on the spirit only. Even a melee dps can do it, more it's more work since he have to move more, but we had a DK do it without a problem.You need to tell people to stay "near" the chain. Not ON the chain. Because he will cast shadow spike on you and.. one the chain, will make it harder to dps the chain with the AoE purple stuff on the ground. Also spread out on the 3 chain, if you all stay on the same, it's not going to go right.

My third point :

based on my experience of about 10 runs where i payed attention.. it seems lynx is always with dragon, and bear is with eagle. And you are correct, it is always bear or lynx first.

This is 100% right.

I also don't get why people do such a big deal of Lord Malacrap. he's mostly a healer job and a tank and spank otherwise. Make sure to CC the adds and keep them CC, or sometime we had to kill one.. But it's really, not a big deal at all.

Also, if I can advice on that guide : Give tips about the trash. Seriously, in Zul Gurub, except Kilnara, mostly all boss are easy. The trash is harder than the boss at some point. Mostly no one use the chauldron correctly. Or get hit by a rock and die. Or get to the top after the rock fall, before the tank, aggro to adds and die, etc. Poeple that step in there first don't know those thing, and I feel this guide is aimed at them, so it would be nice to include more detail about it.

And in Zul Aman, the trash is also A BIG PROBLEM most of the time. The only wipe I got was mostly on Jan'alai and the trash. In a premade group, it's no big deal, but in pug, oh god some of the trash need to be CC'ed, other killed first. Most people have no idea what the skill they do. Don't skil croc into the river, run in and aggro 6 lynx that come out of nowhere etc. Making the group wipe or slow down the group by dieing.

Another good thing that would be great to know is, "How much archeology is needed for the Edge of Madness ?". I personally have no idea. And it would be nice to know.

Thanks.

Comment by Adamsm

on 2011-07-25T23:24:06-05:00

IAnother good thing that would be great to know is, "How much archeology is needed for the Edge of Madness ?". I personally have no idea. And it would be nice to know.

Thanks.

225 minimum isn't it?

And you should look back at the dates on those comments; at the start, people were still using the original level 70 idea for fighting the Lynx, where it was better to take it out first. Yes, now, we know that you just keep burning the Troll and have your ranged standing in the Water Totems to keep the random Lynx attack damage down.

Comment by Br0tha

on 2011-07-25T23:32:15-05:00

225 minimum isn't it?

And you should look back at the dates on those comments; at the start, people were still using the original level 70 idea for fighting the Lynx, where it was better to take it out first. Yes, now, we know that you just keep burning the Troll and have your ranged standing in the Water Totems to keep the random Lynx attack damage down.

No idea about the "minimum".I have archeology, but it's low. (under 200) and I can't use it.The guide say "high level Archeology", 225 doesn't seem really high to me.

So many people skip those boss because so far, most think they need the exact same archeology level as the quest at the entrance.

I know some of the comment are "old". But some are still from 4.2, other are only last patch. And the Trash guide, would be really helpfull. I personally, have no problem as a tank, since I'm overgeared for ZA/ZG. But when I DPS, or I bring some of the "new player" from my guild that just got the ilevel there, it's another story. They tell me "I know the boss fight !"... but wipe on trash constenly because healer don't know when to heal, scout don't get killed fast enough, takes too long in the gauntlet and the "new tank" get overwhelmed, etc. Random tank whine because DPS take aggro while using the frost chauldron doing 50% health of a mob..

Those are only exemple.

Aniway, just wanted to give my opinion on that guide and some post, since I've been doing ALOT of ZG/ZA lately.

Comment by Adamsm

on 2011-07-25T23:58:29-05:00

May have been high when the guide was first written, but since then, I think they lowered it to the min of 225.

Comment by Rankkor

on 2011-07-26T09:56:51-05:00

May have been high when the guide was first written, but since then, I think they lowered it to the min of 225.

nah, I've been able to do that boss since 4.1 was fresh and my arch is at 300 (havent leveled since last december)

They say "High" because 225 is pretty much 50% of the whole profession.

Comment by thebdc

on 2011-09-24T18:42:36-05:00

A cruicial info is missing on the Jan'alai encounter, I think. If he reaches 35% of his health all remaining eggs are opened. If there were a lot eggs left the Flame Buffet of the spawning Dragonhawks can easily overwhelm a tank.